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What's New in Microsoft Dynamics 365 / CRM

The frequency of Microsoft Dynamics 365 updates can present a challenge when it comes to keeping track of all the latest features and understanding how these will benefit your organisation. On this page we’ve provided a summary of improvements from the last 5 years.

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We recommend engaging with Preact to regularly review the results you are getting from Dynamics 365 and to check that you are benefiting from the latest features. The best way to keep up to date with the latest Dynamics 365 product news and technology changes is to join our mailing list.

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Dynamics 365 & Power Platform - 2021 Release Wave 1

Microsoft has unveiled the key dates for its first release wave of 2021. Release plans were published on 27th January and some features are available in early preview from February before these are automatically enabled from 2nd April. This release wave will be phased between April and September 2021.

Download the latest release plans and learn more about Microsoft's product roadmap for Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform.

Read our summary of what's new in the latest release wave:

A Quick Look at the 2021 Release Wave 1 Plans for Dynamics 365 & Power Platform

2020 Release Wave 2

The current release wave began in October 2020. New features within this wave will continue to roll out through until March 2021.

Highlights include:

  • Simplified duplicate detection
  • Enhanced email experience
  • New Sales mobile app preview
  • Redesigned automation designer for Dynamics 365 Marketing
  • Timeline enhancements and configuration
  • Email template improvements
  • Global intelligent search
  • Field Service inspections
  • New Field Service mobile app

Read our overview and see a demonstration of what's new in our recorded webinar.

Browse product highlights and learn more about this release wave on the main Dynamics 365 site.

2020 Release Wave 1

Highlights include:

  • New Kanban boards for Dynamics 365 Sales
  • Licence enforcement for Team Member licences
  • Improved filtering
  • New forecasting capabilities
  • New case routing and SLA experience
  • Open related records in a modal dialog

READ MORE

Further detail about the latest update and Microsoft's roadmap for Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform were shared during the 2020 Business Applications Summit in May.

Dynamics 365 & Power Platform - 2019 Release Wave 2

On 10th June, Microsoft published release plans for its next major update to Dynamics and the the Power Platform. The 2019 Release Wave 2 rolled out between October 2019 and March 2020.

April 2019 Release

In January 2019, Microsoft published a preview guide for its April update to Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform. Administrators can opt-in to preview this update and test selective new features in a non-production environment.

Dynamics 365 - October 2018 Release

In July 2018, Microsoft released a preview guide for the next major cloud update across its Business Applications including Dynamics 365. We have shared a series of posts that focus on what's next for the D365 Customer Engagement apps:

Microsoft has also announced the on-premise release of v9.0.2 for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement apps in October 2018...READ MORE

D365 - Spring 2018 Release

In addition to the release of new Marketing and Business Central apps, Microsoft announced some important changes to the technology and platform capabilities...READ MORE

Dynamics 365 v9.0

Microsoft begun rolling out Dynamics 365 v9 in November 2017. This version included:

Platform / application separation
Redefining the platform layer and breaking apps into role-based solutions for sales, finance & operations, customer service, talent, field service and more

Unified User Interface
Launch of a unified interface that provides a consistent user experience across desktop, mobile, tablet and Outlook

Refreshed Web Interface
A refreshed version of legacy web interface was available released

Text Wrapping
Enable text wrapping for field labels and field values

Multi-select fields
A much requested improvement enables multi-select option sets to be configured for Dynamics fields.

Security enhancements
New controls enabling administrators to define session lengths

Microsoft Flow / Power Automate
Configure new Flows from within the Dynamics 365 interface

Virtual Entities
A new solution to connect external data with D365 that avoids customer coding and data replication

Customer Engagement Portal
An example of the new Unified Interface which replaces the Interactive Service Hub.

LinkedIn integration
Featuring a new LinkedIn connector and Lead Gen Form integration

The release of v9 coincided with the announcements of a series of deprecated features including: service scheduling, dialogs, contract entities, standard SLAs and mail merge.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 - November 2016

Microsoft unified its CRM, ERP and cloud solutions by introducing a new cloud service, Microsoft Dynamics 365.

As part of the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM several new features were added as part of Microsoft's 'Fall' 2016 update.

Aside from the licensing and app change this release also includes:

Editable Grids
Make inline edits from CRM list views and sub-grids.

Outlook App
Improved app for tracking email and referencing CRM data in Outlook.

CRM Learning Paths
New capabilities and authoring to help with the on-boarding of new users. These promote videos, 'how to' guides and other content to walk them through CRM processes.

Relationship Insights (Preview Feature)
Embedded AI capabilities that continuously analyse customer interactions to provide notifications that guide user action including Relationship Assistant alert cards.

Gamification
Uses fantasy sports principle and new gaming capabilities to increase productivity through user engagement and competition.

Relevance Search
New option to match more CRM search terms and rank matching results